2015/10 Australia trip - Karalee Rock |
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Lastly, we thought we’d take advantage of being able to shop in a city, but found that Kalgoorlie’s groceries and liquor stores are closed on Sundays. Instead we set off west 
through rain showers towards Coolgardie on the Great Eastern Highway, aiming for the wildflower hot spots. We had some leaflets describing optimal driving routes. We’d planned to stop for lunch at Boorabin Rock, but our leaflet’s directions didn’t match reality and we missed it. We opted for Sandford Rocks nature reserve instead, but our GPS thought it was further away on the other side of Southern Cross. All this time we were stopping whenever Sandie saw some new flower. One road was lined with these gorgeous golden grevilleas.
Eventually we saw a sign for Karalee Rock, where we’d considered camping; it turned out to be an ideal spot. This was where the railway had built a depot for collecting water for its steam locomotives. As with other granite rocks, knee-high stone walls channel the rain water, this time into a metal flume which carries it into a massive earthen reservoir, 
from where it used to be pumped to a railway station five miles away.
We went for a long walk around the reservoir and up over the rock itself. We were surprised to see a cormorant on the water and diving for fish. It looked to be thriving so someone must have stocked the reservoir at some point. We enjoyed the flowers but not the flies; they seemed to be getting worse as we went west.
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Karalee Rock (2.52) |
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By the time we returned from our walk one other couple had arrived to camp so we weren’t quite on our own
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You may have noticed that we seem to be hopping from rock to rock. Why do we keep camping at rocks? All the fertile flat lands are being farmed either with wheat or canola. The granite outcrops and their surroundings have been largely left alone except for the gathering of water, so that’s where the flowers and camping spots are.
Monday October 12th
We had been on the road now for a week and where were we? On a rock in Western Australia surrounded by flowers – about what we’d hoped for.